In-line skates include a series of wheels that are longitudinally arranged one behind the other along the length of a frame. These wheels normally rotate in a common, vertical plane creating an experience that is similar to ice skating. In-line skating has experienced a considerable increase in its popularity over the last decade. In recent years, in-line skating has become an increasingly popular activity. This is in part due to its combining the excitement and challenge of ice skating with the freedoms of running. In-line skates enable a user to access a variety of smooth and rough indoor and outdoor surfaces including composite rubber floors, concrete and asphalt. In-line skates also offer a variety of wheel types to match the different surfaces and different types of skating.
Conventional in-line skate wheels are either solid or pneumatic. Solid wheels are usually very hard and formed of rubber, plastic or other appropriate materials. Skates using solid wheels often cause discomfort to the skater, particularly when traveling over rough surfaces like asphalt or concrete that can cause road chatter or other types of high frequency vibrations. These hard wheels transmit vibrations directly to the feet of the skater, often times causing discomfort that persists long after skating has concluded.
When compared to solid skate wheels, pneumatic skate wheels provide skaters with a more comfortable ride. Pneumatic skate wheels include a bladder or fluid receiving area that dampens vibrations created during skating. These wheels also give the skater the option of using a softer or harder tire depending on the type of skating to be done. Pneumatic skate wheels are lighter than solid wheels of the same size, as a result, they can significantly reduce the overall weight of a skate, especially, when the skate requires four or more wheels.
Traditional pneumatic wheels have been known to fail under certain conditions. For instance, the centrifugal force generated at high speeds can deform a pneumatic wheel if its internal bladder or tire lacks adequate lateral support. The tires of poorly bonded pneumatic skate wheels may separate from their hubs and cause injury to a skater when used on surfaces or in a manner that causes strong, jarring shocks or constant, intense vibrations. These shocks and vibrations can be caused by landing on the skating surface at various angles, abrupt stopping, abrupt lateral movements, or dragging a wheel or a rack of wheels along the ground. Traditional pneumatic wheels are also difficult and expensive to manufacture because they require a sliding tool to form the outer circumferential surface of the hub. Moreover, properly locating a bladder on a prior art molded hub can be a very difficult and time consuming procedure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,891, to Peterson et al., discloses a pneumatic in-line skate wheel having a tire body and a central hub constructed of a polyurethane material. The hub includes a pair of radially projecting flanges forming a drop center. Angularly shaped stand off ribs, defining spokes, radiate outwardly from the drop center and a pair of positioning nubs is located on support tips defined by the joint between cooperating stand off ribs. The bladder is placed directly on the hub and rests on the support tips between a pair of positioning nubs. The positioning nubs do not provide lateral support to the side walls of the bladder and do not laterally urge the bladder into alignment with the centerline of the hub when the tire material is being introduced. The radially projecting flanges prevent the tire material from flowing around and along the sides of the support tips.
U.S. Pat. No. 979,169, to Kennedy, discloses a pneumatic in-line skate wheel. The wheel includes a pneumatic bladder surrounded by an outer tire casing that is secured to the hub by plurality of flanges extending outwardly from the hub body. The hub does not have a plurality of tabs extending from its outer surface for positioning and aligning the bladder during the pouring of the tire material.
U.S. Pat. No. 988,533, to Zverina, and U.K. Patent No. 3,372, to Wyatt, disclose pneumatic skate wheels for skates having an internal bladder surrounded by a tire material. The bladder rests in a groove on the outer surface of a hub and is held in place by the tire material being locked into the hub. The hub does not include a plurality of tabs that position the bladder above its outer surface and in alignment with its centerline so that a tire material can be poured completely around the bladder.
A decided need in the art exists for an in-line skate wheel with a hub that easily receives and centers a pneumatic tire bladder. There is also a decided need in the art for an in-line skate wheel hub that provides adequate support to a pneumatic tire bladder while being easy and inexpensive to manufacture.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art inline skate wheels, particularly those of the prior art pneumatic in-line skate wheels.